LAHORE, April 15: The national selection committee on Tuesday invited 76 cricketers to appear in two-day trials at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on Wednesday and Thursday.

Those impressing selectors will be retained in a pool of 60 players, also likely to comprise cricketers who went to South Africa and Sharjah. They will be equally divided into five teams for matches to be played from April 18 to 24 at Lahore, whose schedule is being finalized by PCB’s Cricket Operations department.

“The idea for this exercise is to identify talent and expose them before the newly-appointed selection committee. It (this process) would also help them in selecting Pakistan teams for forthcoming assignments,” a PCB spokesman said.

Pakistan will tour Sri Lanka and England in the next two months and are also scheduled to host Bangladesh and South Africa between August and November.

Chairman of selectors, Aamir Sohail said: “Some slots are still available for grabs in Pakistan cricket team. Besides, we want to have, at least, two to three back up players for every place so that if a top performer is not available for any reason, the replacement is equally good.”

Aamir said five teams for 15 matches will be announced on Thursday evening. “We have to blend youth with experience and until we are not sure of what is available, we can’t proceed. The boys for trials have been picked on their domestic performances and on recommendations of match referees and umpires.”

He said some of enterprising and talented players may also be recommended to attend coaching at National Cricket Academy which is likely to get operative in May.

Aamir admitted that names of some current Test players featured in probables invited for trials, saying: “Players like Mohammad Zahid and Naved Latif were in team for Sharjah Cup but they didn’t get opportunity to play. Therefore, we just need to make sure if they are fit and how far they are technically correct. There is no element of disrespect to these players.”

Probables for trials:

Openers: Imran Nazir (Lahore), Imran Farhat (Lahore), Babar Naeem (Rawalpindi), Salman Butt (Lahore), Kamran Sajid (Lahore), Ali Naqvi (Lahore), Khalid Latif (Karachi) and Adil Nisar (Lahore).

Middle-order batsmen: Naved Latif (Sargodha), Qaiser Abbas (Muridke), Bilal Asad (Islamabad), Bazid Khan (Lahore), Farhan Adil (Karachi), Saeed bin Nasir (Karachi), Yasir Hameed (Peshawar), Khaqan Arsal (Lahore), Mohammad Wasim (Islamabad), Hasan Raza (Karachi), Sohail Idrees (Lahore), Sufyan Munir (Lahore), Rizwan Malik (Gujranwala), Usman Tariq (Bahawalpur), Naumanullah (Karachi), Asim Kamal (Karachi), Asim Munir (Gujranwala), Fahad-ul-Haq (Lahore), Salman Ali (Sheikhupura), Salman Qadir (Lahore), Shahid Yousuf (Sialkot), Faisal Khan (Sialkot), Shahnawaz Malik (Lahore), Asif Hussain (Faisalabad) and Maisam Hasnain (Karachi).

All-rounders: Yasir Arafat (Islamabad), Junaid Zia (Rawalpindi), Raza Ali Dar (Lahore), Kamran Younis (Lahore), Atiq-ur-Rehman (Gujranwala).

Fast bowlers: Mohammad Zahid (Vehari), Jaffar Nazir (Muridke), Najaf Shah (Rawalpindi), Shabbir Ahmed (Khanewal), Abdul Rauf (Okara), Faisal Afridi (Sargodha), Tanvir Ahmed (Karachi), Waqas Ahmed (Lahore), Fazle Akbar (Peshawar), Yasir Ali (Attock), Mohammad Asif (Sheikhupura), Wasim Khan (Lahore), Nawaz Sardar (Sheikhupura), Khurram Irshad (Lahore), Mohammad Irshad (Lahore), Tahir Mughal (Sialkot), Samiullah Khan (Sargodha), Fahad Masood (Lahore), Imran Ali (Lahore), Saad Altaf (Rawalpindi), Nadeem Javed (Sheikhupura), Irfan Fazil (Lahore), Umar Javed (Lahore) and Wahab Riaz (Lahore).

Spinners: Azhar Ali (Lahore), Aqeel Ahmed (Faisalabad), Mansoor Amjad (Sialkot), Farooq Iqbal (Faisalabad), Abdul Shakoor (Azad Kashmir), Iftikhar Mahmood (Rawalpindi), Mohammad Hussain (Lahore), Yasir Shah (Swabi) and Aftab Ahmed (Karachi).

Wicket-keepers: Atiq-uz-Zaman (Karachi), Kamran Akmal (Lahore), Zulqarnain Haider (Lahore), Humayun Farhat (Lahore) and Amin-ur-Rehman (Karachi).—PPI